Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

Should you buy banks stocks?

November 15, 2006 16:21 IST

There has been a lot of interest over the last few days in the banking space. At current valuations in this market scenario, should traders hold, sell or buy into this space.

Investment advisor PN Vijay and technical analyst Deepak Mohoni discuss their favourites in the banking space.

Vijay is positive about ICICI Bank. He says, "There is now a clear indication that they are going to unlock value. Kamath's strategy is very entrepreneurial; he builds businesses and then unlocks them. So ICICI Bank, amongst the biggies, looks interesting."

Apart from that, he says that there is a lot of interest in Centurion Bank. And he also feels that the DCB IPO will sell.

Deepak Mohoni feels that it is a bit late to buy UTI Bank right now. "UTI Bank had started to move about 4-5 days back. So the breakout really, if you want to call it that, has already happened. So it's little late to get into it now."

However, he says that UTI is worth a look after the dip. He says that Kotak is still in a pretty decent uptrend.

Moving on, neither Vijay nor Mohoni are too upbeat on banks as a sector.

Vijay advises, "When you are getting into the private bank stocks, you are already buying a bit of risk into that sector. If I see a pretty nice profit out there, I would book it."

Meanwhile Mohoni informs, "Ultimately, you have got to evaluate the move by seeing what sort of percentage gains the stock makes rather than whether it set a new high or not. And banks are not up there with the leaders."

For more on markets & business, log on to www.moneycontrol.com.

Moneycontrol.com